Man&#39;s underwear



Feb. 16, 1932. .1. K. HEYMAN ETAL 1,845,749

uAN's UNDERWEAR v Filed July 11, 1951 2 sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 16, 19324.1. K. HEYMAN ET AL 1,845,749

MAN'S UNDERWEAR Filed July 11, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lill ill i PatentedFeb. 16, 1932 n UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOSEPH K. HEYMABTAND ALFREDF. WENZEL, OF MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA, ASSIGNORS "l'O RELIANCEMANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION F ILLINOISMANS UNDERWEAR Application filled. July 11,

Uur linvention relates to Inens underwear, and more particularly to thetype of mens athletic underwear general y designated as shorts or trackpants.

Uur invention is concerned with an viinproved construction of continuousfacing for the iiy opening whereby the garment is hetu ter adapted towithstand certain classes of strains which we have found to be the mostlo frequent cause of athletic shorts tearingy at the crotch of the ilyopening.

We have found, contrary to general belief, that strains which result intearing at the crotch of the fly opening are not parallel with thefacing and therefore cannot be successfully borne by a mere continuousfacing. Nor does the tearing strain in question come from such anextreme movement by the wear er as exemplified by kickinga football, for`that produces merely l astrain across the crotch of the garment .as awhole,not the crotch of the fly opening. We have found that the tearingstrain upon the crotch of the ily opening ,comes when the short isdropped to the region of the knee, and the linee-to-knee strain 'iscarried along a linewhich then becomes practically a straight linefrointhe left hip-through and across the facing and intersects thefacing atthe t the crotch of the ily opening to the right hip point. .Thisstra-in is not parallel with the facing. Neither is it at right anglesto the facing. .It comes at a substantial angle to fold or crotch of theily, whereby` the facing at the crotch has to carrythe strain obliquelyfrom one front leg piece to the other front i leg piece.'

adapted to take this strain.

The strain must be transferred obliquely `from one side pieceon'tothefacingarried I Below the crotch 14 the two edges of the forhythe facing obliquely4 across the crotch point ofthe liy,andre-transferred o n tothe ody ofl the goods,-all without localizing thestrain on any stitching suliiciently to result in tearing of the goodsorstitching. "Our ilyfacing construction is peculiarly Another featureofour invention in connection withI our continuous facingconstructionfo'r the ily o ening is-the droppmgof l the crotch ofthe yopening down as far `as HEISSUED possible toward the crotch of thegarment itself, whereby the angle between the line of the facing and theline of the strain in question will be greater, thereby furtherminimizing the tendency to tear the goods or stitching in transferringthe strain from the body piece to the facing and again on to the otherbody piece.

These and further objects, features and advantages are set forth in thefollowing description of a preferred embodiment of our 1931. Serial No.550,056.

invention, as illustrated' in the accompany ing drawings, wherein Fig. 1is a front View of the garment as it would appear' laid flat upon atable with the crotch ofthe garment exposed; L

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary front View of the right half of the garmentshowing particularly the body piece forming the front of the right leg,as it appears when laid flat and smooth;

Fig. 3 is a corresponding view to show the left leg body; v

- Fig. 4 is a somewhat diagrammatic Vertical section taken' on the line4--4 along the fly;

Fig. 5 is a somewhat diagrammatic plan section taken along the line 5-5of Figs. 1 and 4; and

Fig. 6 is a front View of the shorts with the :fly fully extended and'showing the acrossthefiy-facing strain which our construction isdesigned to resist` The short-s here shown are formed of two maj orpieces 10 and 11 forming both the front and back sides of the leftand-right legs respectively and reinforced at their tops by a-cresce'ntshaped waist band 12. The vpieces 10 and 11 are joined vby a seam 13from the waist down to the crotch 14 of the garment.

ward and rear edges of the left piece 10 are stitched together by anin-seam l5 to form the leg. The same is true of the left piece 1l. Onthe front side, and above the crotchlll of the garment, the sides 10 and11 are left open to form a ily opening 16, except for a -short distancebetween the crotch 1 7 of the fly opening and the crotch 14 of thegarment where the `pieces 10 and 11 are seamed together by stitching 18;

The short length of'stitching 18 appears in Fig. 1, as aligned with theHy opening 16, and in fact is, when the garment is worn. However, itwill be noted from Figs. 2 and 3 that as the goods is cut, the edge ofeach piece 10, '11, which is sewn by the stitching 18 is at aconsiderable angle to the line of Hy, when the piece is laid Hat. Thestitching 18 forms something of a bottom limit beyond which the crotch17 ofthe Hy could not be dropped without having to complicate the Hyopening and its facing by angularly 0H'- setting it.

The Hy or facing 19 for the Hy opening 16 is formed from a strip offabric material folded longitudinally with the opposed raw edges of itsinner and outer plies 20 and 21 turned inwardly as shown in Fig. 5.Onehalf of the facing 19 is secured to the front edge of the left bodypiece 1() by a line of stitching 22, the raw edge of the piece 10 beingsecured between the inturned edges of the plies 21 and 20.

The other half of the facing 19 is secured to the edge of the left bodypiece 11. The piece 11 extends on the outside of the two plies 2O and 21of the facing and is turned backwardly and engaged between the inturnededges of the plies 20 and 21, being stitched down by a line of stitching23 forming a continuation of the stitching 22. The opposite or foldededge of the facin .19 is stitched down to the piece 11 by a 2Irine ofstitching 24. This stitching, as will later be explained, is ofparticular importance in our construction. If preferred, the stitching24 may extend as indicated at 24 along the folded edge of the first halfof the facing .19. The extension 24 of thisl stitching, however, wouldextend only through the plies 20 and 21 of the facing and would notextend through either of the body pieces.

At the crotch or fold of the Hy opening 16 the facing is sewn to theleft body piece V11 by a transverse line of stitching 25. Both ends ofthe facing 19 extend upwardly to the upper edges of the body pieces 10and 11 respectively, where they are anchored to the rear waist bands 26.

As previously explained, we have found that the tearing of underwear atthe crotch of the Hy opening is not the result of the strains to whichits tearing is usually attributed, such as an end-to-end strainlongitudinally of the Hy facing, an extreme swinging of the leg such asin kicking a football, or

a transverse thigh-to-thigh strain. To the contrary, we have found thatthe strains which result in a tearing at the crotch of the Hy openingare occasioned by a knee-to-knee strain when the garment has beendropped to the region of the knee. When in this position, as indicatedin Fig. 6, the strain may be considered as extending between the leftand right hip points, that is, from the left center of the waist band tothe right center of the waist band. If the Hy opening were buttoned upas in Fig. 1, the line of strain between the two hip points would ofcourse follow along the front waist bands. But when the Hy opening isnot buttoned, as in the circumstances of Fig. 6, it assumes a line ofstrain as a straight line 27 passing through the crotch of the Hyopening. The two triangular portions represented by the upper ends ofthe button and button-hole Hies respectively then become mere inertflaps. In F ig. 6, for the sake of clarity, these flaps are shownsmoothed out into a vertical plane.

This knee-to-knee strain is developed when the garment is in theposition described and the wearer lets the knees spread apart, oftenunconsciously developing a very great strain along the line 27. It willbe seen from Fig. 6 that the line 27 intersects the center line 28 ofthe Hy facing 28 at an angle of about. 45 degrees. The entireknee-to-knee strain which can be considered as concentrated along theline 27 has to be transferred from the piece 10 to the piece 11, or viceversa, through the facing 19 at the crotch 17 of theHy opening..

That this is true can be seen from the fact that except for the shortstitching 18, which comes below the line' of strain 27, the piece 1() isnot directly sewn or secured to the piece 11, but is connected onlythrough the'intermediary of the facing 19.

A mere continuous facing along the Hy opening would not successfully`effect the transfer of strain along this opening without danger oftearing because the strain is not parallel with the facing 19. Insteadit is at i a considerable angle to it. It is important to the mostsuccessful withstanding of this kneeto-knee strain that in addition tothe continuityr of the facing 19 lpast the crotch 1.7. of the Hyopening, the strain concentrated along the line 27 be transferred fromthe piece 10 to the facing on one side of the crotch 17 and then, on theother side of the crotch, be retransferred from the facing to the piece11, in such a manner as to minimize the danger of concentrating thestrain to a degree where it will tear the stitching. y

One helpful factor in carrying out this function is the line ofstitching 24 which secures one edge of the folded facing 19 to the bodypiece 11. Were it not for this line ofk over the'full length of thetransverse stitching 25, and also over a considerable length of thestitching 24 from the crotch 17 of the Hy opening upwardly or outwardlyin a dlrection toward the Waist band ofthe body piece 11,-a regionsubstantially as embraced by the bracket 29.

This distribution over the region 29 of the 5 stitching 24 is Jfurtheraided by the fact that the line 27 of strain is at substantially 45degrees to the center line 28 of the facing. The center line of the flyis along the maximum bias of the goods. This supplies the l stretch orresiliency which further distributes the strain along the region 29 andespecially avoids a dangerous concentration of the strain at the precisepoint Where the line 27 intersects the stitching 24. l 0n the other sideof the crotch of the tly opening the strain is transferred from the bodypiece to the fly facing 19 over a distributed region of the stitching22. This minimizes the regions of concentrated strain which might resultin tear. Also, the upper end of the short line of stitching 18 from thecrotch of the Hy opening to the crotch 14 ol the garment itself isrelieved. The resiliency afforded by the strain coming along the bias ofthe goods is a further aid.

Having thus described our invention, What "We claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In a pair of pants, the combination of right E@ hand and left handpieces of material shaped to torni a trunk and legs, each of said pieceshaving a portion of its opposite edges secured together to form thelegs, and the adjacent edges of said pieces being secured together ualong a line extending from the crotch up the bach of the pants to formthe trunk, with means for detachably securing the adjacent' `lront edgesof the right hand and left hand pieces together, a facing strip for saidadja- 20 cent `tront edges comprising a continuous piece of materialextending down one of said adjacent front edges and secured thereto andfolded up at the bottom ot the fly and extending up the other of saidadjacent front edges and secured thereto, whereby ripping of the seam atthe base of the fly is prevented, said facing strip comprising a piecefolded back on itself to form a double layer, and said strip having atransverse line of stitching at the base `of the fly and the strip4overlying the inner side of the fly and having both edges stitched tothat portion of the pants forming the inner side of the fly to resistripping by diagonal strains. ln witness whereof, We hereunto subscribeour naines this 25th day ot' June, 1931.

. J. K. HEYMAN.

A. F. WENZEL.

